Trustees
Electrical Safety First is governed by a Board of Trustees who have a vast range of experience and interest in electrical safety. They are responsible for setting the strategic goals of the charity to ensure that it fulfils its consumer safety mission, adheres to principles of good governance and remains true to its values.
Emma Hudson (chair)
Emma has been a part of the electronics industry for over twenty years and holds a BEng in Materials Engineering. In January 2020 she decided to dedicate herself to helping the industry navigate the Standards maze by establishing Emma Hudson Technical Consultancy Ltd.
Emma has been working with and helping to develop safety and quality/reliability standards for electronics for many years. She is a member of numerous committees, including IEC (TC91), ISO (TC44, SC12), UL (UL 796 STP), and several IPC committees. Emma is also the current chair of the British Committee (EPL 501), which mirrors the IEC and ISO committees, and is a convenor of one of the TC 91 working groups. Emma's dedication was recognised in 2021 with the IEC 1906 award.
Emma also supports the electronics industry through her work with groups such as the European Institute for Printed Circuits (Vice President and Treasurer), and the UK's Institute of Circuit Technology (Chair).
In her spare time, Emma supports her partner with his motorcycle training business and enjoys getting the chance to go out on her own Ducati Monster.
Rahul Bhalinge
Rahul works as a CIMA qualified finance executive with extensive experience in finance, operations and transformation initiatives, in large MNCs across Industrial and Retail sectors. He has a proven track record of delivering value in matrix organizations, through strategic cost, productivity & cash actions, order book growth & risk management and process simplifications. Rahul is recognised for collaborative leadership style and people development focus. He is currently focused on driving execution around improving Free Cash Flow entitlement, Finance transformation, Organisation re-design and Business Strategy.
Armelle Boisset
Armelle has worked in the telecommunications industry for over twenty years, with experience in operational support, network rollout and programme management. She is currently Director of Engineering for Spectrum (radio waves) at UK regulator Ofcom, contributing to areas ranging from technical standards to field-based measurements to technical studies underpinning policy decisions. Armelle holds a degree in electrical engineering and is a member of the Institute of Engineering and Technology (IET). She is also a trustee at Berkshire Youth, a local youth services charity.
Tom Connelly
Coming from an electrical contracting background, Tom Connelly operates within the Social Housing Sector providing independent third party consultancy and quality control inspections for registered social landlords. His current role is the Director of Electrical Operations, responsible for the delivery of services nationwide. Tom has operated previously as National Electrical Compliance Manager for a major contractor where he was responsible for the implementation and management of an electrical compliance structure nationwide. He is also a member of the Institute of Engineering and Technology (IET).
Martha Desmond
Martha is an HR Professional with extensive experience in large multi-nationals. She has worked across all areas of human resources, from Recruitment & Selection through to Human Resources HR and Development along with Industrial Relations (Unionised). This has enabled Martha to provide support and guidance at all levels within the organisation. Martha’s approach is to develop solid and trusting relationships with key stakeholders while driving a strategic HR agenda that achieves business results and is aligned to their values.
Robert Gosling
With a background in Mechanical Engineering, Rob supports companies with policy, regulation and standardisation. In his current role, he's built the Technical team at AMDEA (The Association of Manufacturers of Domestic Appliances), supporting the CEO to work through a transformation and supporting members on sustainability, safety and in the emerging UK regulatory framework. In his previous 14 years at Dyson, he worked on policy, regulations and standards with an International team to support bringing novel products to market in a commercially compelling way. In recent years he founded and chaired The Washing Machine Project Foundation, a grant-making charity raising over £300k supporting the development and deployment of solutions, including manual washing machines for refugee camps.
Nick Guy
Nick is an experienced commercial and supply chain leader. His recent career has been consumer and retail focused and includes time at Amazon and Pure Electric. In his current role he is leading elements of the commercial strategy at Screwfix, a leading trade focused business.
Nicola Hussey
Nicola is an experienced, multi-award-winning senior communications specialist with a track record of developing communications and stakeholder engagement strategies (internal & external) to manage reputation and for issues-led, policy and tactical campaigns to secure brand and stakeholder awareness, market coverage and drive ROI in addition to employee engagement and management of transformational change. With over 20+ years’ experience of both in-house and agency, Nicola has worked across a wide range of sectors including financial services and personal finance, Government, consumer, technology and charity.
Paul Neville
Paul Neville has over 20 years of experience in digital transformation. Currently, he is employed by The Pensions Regulator as Interim Executive Director of Digital, Data and Technology. Paul is also a part of Certsure’s Management Board.
Paul has worked across several sectors. This includes leading transformation projects at BT and delivering innovation for the government and non-profit sector. Paul was one of the founder members of the London Office of Technology & Innovation. He has been featured in various industry publications and the CIO 100 list.
Richard Olszewski
Richard is a senior public affairs and communications professional, with more than 30 years’ experience in consultancy, government, and in-house. He has worked for more than two decades in Westminster and Whitehall, including six years as a special adviser to a senior Cabinet minister, together with 20 years’ experience in consultancy and public affairs.
Currently, Richard is a senior leader in local government. At Camden council, he is cabinet member for finance, where he has strategic and political oversight of £1 billion revenue and capital budgets, and specific responsibilities for cost of living support, digital technology, data, customer services, human resources, benefits and licensing. Richard is also a non-executive board member of the London Pensions Fund Authority.
Raj Vagdia
Raj Vagdia is the Technical Director at BEAMA responsible for horizontal and cross-portfolio technical, standardisation, and conformity assessment policies. Raj represents BEAMA on several National and European industry groups, including committees covering product directives such as the Low Voltage Directive. Raj also represents BEAMA on several strategic standardisation committees and is the UK Member of the International Electrotechnical Commission Conformity Assessment Board (IEC CAB). Raj joined BEAMA in July 2012, having previously worked at an independent test and certification body and prior to that, at a wiring devices and circuit protection manufacturing company. An Engineer with a background in Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Raj has several years of experience in product testing, certification, standardisation and conformity assessment.
Alan Wells
With over 40 years’ experience in the electrical engineering field, Alan is a highly respected figure in the industry. Prior to his retirement he held numerous posts in building engineering services maintenance, electro-mechanical installation design, as well as senior management posts within the Electrical Contractors’ Association and NICEIC.
As the Technical and Standards Director at Certsure he was responsible for ensuring that they provided high quality technical services to its registrants and represented their technical interests nationally.
He was an active member of key industry committees, including the Joint IET / BSI Technical Committee for the UK Wiring Regulations (JPEL 64) and advised central and local government in England, Scotland and Wales on matters of electrical safety. In addition, he presented at IET and FISUEL conferences both in the UK and Europe and was a Board Member of BASEC - the British Approvals Service for Electric Cables in addition to ABCB - Association of British Certification Bodies the recognised voice of accredited certification bodies in the UK representing the views of its members to UKAS, IAF, EA and Government.